“There’s something for everyone…” Becs Henchey, Becky Matthews and Kate Goss on Golden Bear’s range

Golden Bear: “So much more than plush!” That’s what my notes say – and what a lineup to discuss it: Becs Henchey, Product and Innovation Director; Becky Matthews, UK Sales and Marketing Director… And Kate Goss: Creative Manager and Head of Games. Welcome!
Becky Matthews: Thanks, Deej; thanks for having us.

Not at all – my pleasure. Becky, we had a chat recently that made me want to pose the question: to what degree has Golden Bear evolved from its beginnings in plush?
Becky: Significantly! Really significantly. Plush is still very much one of our specialisms: we do a lot of it, and we do it very, very well. As you know, we create characters just as they appear on the TV screen… We bring them to life and put them into the consumer’s hands. But we’ve also diversified. We do a lot in plastic, and we’ve diversified into the sports category and into games. So we have different capabilities that not everyone has realised.

Perfect! And Barry Hughes is talking to Billy in more detail about the sports –we can link to that here. Let’s talk a little about games. That’s you, Kate…
Kate Goss: Not on my own, though! We’ve now got a team of people who’ve come together to work on a new umbrella brand that covers all our games – Bear Faced Games. As you know, Deej, our range of games started with Trapped. We built on the success of that with Hyper Dash and Fart Yoga as well as some of our own IP. We’ve got the football-trivia game Fanzone which is doing phenomenally well for us. We also have Farty Freddie…

Farty Freddie which – at first glance – people might mistake for just a plush…
Kate: Yes. Farty Freddie is a game with a plush in there… Pass the parcel with a farting plush. We then took that to license with Minions… So we have Farty Minions as well. There are a lot of farts, Deej! That universal humour speaks to the broad appeal of everything we’ve got. Those lines are disruptive on shelf, but we’ve also got the plastic and card lines as well as the farty fun.

So in terms of moving into 2025, what’s the succinct message you’re looking to put forward? “We’re not just plush!”?
Becky: Yes – it’s that we’ve got something for everyone. That’s what we’d like inventors, buyers and licensors to know… Because historically we’ve very much been known as infant and preschool specialists. And we’re very proud of our work in those areas, but we’re now looking to offer products in every category in the toy industry. We’ve diversified significantly – and that’s the message we want to share.

Becs Henchey: Right. I think the impression that Golden Bear really grew and developed around the licensed preschool is understandable. Plush and licensed preschool have been a major part of our business for a very long time, and they continue to be really important for us. But as you know, Deej, that’s not always the easiest category. So as a business, we made some strategic decisions to broaden our reach and create categories within our business that would balance our range a little more.

So we believe we’ve now got a more balanced structure. You’ve still got the licensed preschool product – which will always be part of our heartland. You’ve got our own IP delivery on toys, which covers things like Curlimals… And Curlimals is an amazing success story for us: it’s really helped expand us internationally and do something completely different. In turn, that’s helped with the development on the football items and the amazing technology that we now work with…

How so?
Becs: The technology wasn’t something we used to deal with… So developing those lines and adding them to our range let us infiltrate other categories, too. And having the games on top of that gives us this really lovely, balanced approach and means we can play in many more sectors. It also gives us the freedom to be able to expand where we want to, when we want to. We’re not restricted purely by what licensed characters are on TV in which territory – and that’s let us push our elbows out internationally as well as in the UK.

Great! I imagine branching into technology must’ve been a steep learning curve. What was the biggest challenge?
Becs: Oh, that’s a really good question! It’s challenging to move into categories in terms of the technology, in terms of games, in terms of all the new areas that we’ve built into, and in terms of working with inventors… All of these areas are relatively new for us. But what I think they bring to the business is more energy – and a greater desire to explore more, try new things and push ourselves a little further.

Wow! Have you had a bowl of Ready Brek, Becs? That was like a motivational speech! Great!
Becs: Ha! But to you question: what’s the most difficult thing about working with technology? I think it’s working out how to balance the level of technology with the cost of the product while still making sure it’s accessible for the consumer… Because it would be really easy to run away and just throw the kitchen sink into a product. But actually, you’ve got to make sure that it’s the right product for the right consumer at the right price.

And Curlimals is a good example of that. There were lots of conversations to get that balance right… How many characters, how many noises, how many movements – and the final product is terrific at that price. But I do wonder if the desire to do everything sometimes means a company releases a product that doesn’t do any one thing particularly well…
Becs: Yes, I think it’s really easy to fall into that trap. The best way to get around it is research – talking mainly to children… Putting the product in their hands and seeing what they think. Children are the most honest people in the world. If they don’t like it, they’ll tell you. If they don’t get it, they’ll tell you. And if they don’t want to pay for it, they’ll tell you.

Where are these children that you use?
Becs: Sometimes it’s really local; sometimes even the children of employees. Sometimes we have more formal research sessions where we do really in-depth interviews with particular families. It really depends on what it is that we want to know. We get different things out of every level of research that we do.

Brilliant, Becs; you’re on fire today! There’s one thing I was going to pick up on. You said earlier that working with inventors is relatively new to you…
Becs: Yes. We’ve done it for a few years now. But we’re still learning from that – every time we deliver something new – just as we should. One thing we love about that is working collaboratively with inventors and playing to their strengths and to our strengths. It feels like that’s what delivers the best product for us. And because we’re not a huge company, we can invest time with our inventors and make sure we we’ve got a shared vision of where we’re going with the product.

Hmmm. And in relation to inventors – well, actually, I have an admin question… This may not be something we publish, but I’d appreciate the feedback: what could Mojo do better to help inventors do better for you? What’s your one-star review of the Mojo event? Slag it off!
Becs: My gut answer is that the Mojo event, for me, is one of the most positive weeks of the year. As a person on the creative side of our industry, it’s such an uplifting event. It’s this engagement of so many different people, all willing each other to do well – and I absolutely love it. So there’s nothing for me that you guys can do better. I think you do an amazing job. It’s so obvious how much energy and effort goes into planning it. It really is appreciated. Kate, I don’t know if you’ve got anything to add?

Kate: Well, it’s the same – and we get to meet inventors that we perhaps wouldn’t otherwise meet. Obviously, there’re some really well-known inventors there, but some of those smaller or up-and-coming inventors are harder to reach. The Mojo event is a great opportunity for us to find and meet people who are the right fit with us. We’ve made and built on some great connections there – and licensed a couple of games and a plush line. So – pretty awesome!

Wow. Gosh. I asked for a one-star review – you gave me two five-star reviews! Thank you.
Kate: You won’t be editing that out, will you?! Ha!

No, I’ll definitely leave that in… Heck, I’ll get it printed on a tee shirt! Ha! But what I was going to ask in relation to inventors was this: what is it you’re likely to be looking for from inventors in 2025?
Becs: From a toy point of view, I think it’s about real innovation… Something we can make that’s really unique. And that might be in the girls’ area, it might be in the arts and crafts area. It needn’t necessarily be in the boys’ area so much, but certainly in the outdoors area. Sports. From a games point of view, Kate, what are your aspirations?

Kate: I’d say it’s simple, out-the-box fun… Games that offer repeat play to customers. Each time, it’s trying to get that unique experience so that no two games are the same. And we’re not great with long instructions and rules. We like them to be sort of quick, simple to play. I think that’s the focus. The other bit is about making sure it’s inclusive for everyone: family fun. Grandma has got to be able to play it as well as the youngest family member in the house. It’s definitely about fun, time-together games.

And Becky, have you anything to add to that?
Becky: From a sales and marketing perspective, I agree with what Becs just said. The uniqueness; the simplicity. And for me, demonstrative. If it’s demonstrative, I know we’ve got a winner.

Oh! Great word. Define demonstrative for me…
Becky: We want to be able to watch a short video of it – and have that be easy enough for people to understand it. The phrase we use internally is ‘TikTok-able’. You can watch a short video on TikTok and get it. So going back to the conversation we had earlier, if you’ve got too much in the product, you’ve got too much to get across. So we’re looking for the simplicity. Another thought I have when the team brings an idea to the table is this: is there a chance that this going to go viral?

Great stuff. And you say short videos – I tend to say no more than a minute to pitch a game – but preferably 30 seconds… How long are you thinking is enough time for a video to be demonstrative?
Becky: People’s attention spans now are so small that we’ve really got to understand products in five to ten seconds – full stop. You can add, you can explain more later, but the main feature needs to get across in that small amount of time – and that’s not easy for these guys when they’re looking at products.

Main feature in ten seconds. Got it. Alrighty! We covered quite lot there. Is there anything else I should’ve asked you about but didn’t?
Becs: I don’t think so. Kate spoke about the way we’ve restructured our business in order to be able to deliver what we’re doing. Maybe I could’ve added that we have specific work streams creating specialisms within our business. We’ve got people focused on the license team, the games and our own intellectual properties. And that’s working really well… So we’re getting right under the skin of these different categories and creating experts in their field – and we’re looking forward to hearing from more people about all our ranges in 2025.

Wonderful. Let’s wrap it up there – thank you all so much for joining me.

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